Smash hit

It is the scientific nitty-gritty behind all this choice that occupies Paschal Little, head of technology. Little’s job is to find the latest technology, the most cutting-edge way with Lycra or the perfect underwire, harness it, and get it to M&S customers before anyone else. Technology is hugely important in lingerie, he says, because a bra isn’t made just to rest on the body, it’s there to do a job. A bra, he points out, is a high-tech garment and it’s no easy task to make the same technology apply to a 32A as a 42J.

“It’s up to us to challenge what women think their lingerie and hosiery can do,” he says. “Our Magic hosiery wouldn’t have been technically possible a few years ago. Shaping corsetry used to be quite involved and wasn’t invisible under clothes. Now, we can be very discreet. And micro-encapsulation technology means we can put properties into hosiery, such as moisturising or cooling.”

It’s the same sort of technology that Simon Colbeck, head of menswear technology, puts in men’s underpants. M&S do six shapes of underpants (boxers are the bestseller, closely followed by trunks) and sell 32 million pairs a year. The company knows that men like their pants to be technologically advanced, and a label that says it uses Nasa technology is a winner. Colbeck has worked with fibre producers to develop an absorbent cotton “for the last drop, because that’s understandably important to men”. He’s developed pants that keep you cool and pants that keep you warm; he’s developed pants with crushed pearls or seaweed, and pants with milk protein in them.

“We’ll be the first to market with a milk product,” he says proudly. “You get that lovely softness from it, and it’s a protein, so potentially it gives you back some of the benefits of milk.”

Oh, come on: men don’t need to get calcium from their pants.

“They might do! We’ve got to try out things. One of our mandates for menswear is we have to be first to market with every new fabric. And there’s a greater appetite for innovation in menswear than in womenswear. These technical finishes are what will continue to make us the market leader in underwear.”

Colbeck is infectiously proud of his underpants. He talks nonstop about the challenges of getting just the right amount of elastane in a fabric to give support, while also catering for the men who don’t want support at all. “You’ve got to make sure they’ve got enough room,” he explains. With all this enthusiasm, Paxogate – when Paxo complained that his M&S pants no longer gave him the support he was used to – must have been a blow. “Jeremy had an opinion and we were delighted to hear it.” So they invited him to lunch. Did he say yes? “He certainly did, and he got a very thorough understanding of the Marks & Spencer philosophy on underwear. Following on from Jeremy’s escalation of the underpants issue, Which? did an independent assessment that we came top of.”

M&S doesn’t make any of its underwear, men’s or women’s, in the UK any more. It’s done in China and Turkey, and at an ecologically sound new factory in Sri Lanka, which the company is very proud of. Sir Stuart Rose flew out personally to open it, which must have been an improvement on Paddington Basin, where M&S moved to from Baker Street four years ago. He apparently takes a close interest in the lingerie department, does Sir Stuart, and looks the ranges over before they launch. But with trading across the high street heading for tough times, he is probably worrying about more than the quality of the embroidery now. Will the downturn affect lingerie?

“People still need knickers and bras,” reasons Frances Russell. “We just need to be the best on the high street so they’ll buy ours.” Sir Stuart couldn’t have put it better himself.

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